A retrospective analysis of efficacy and safety of adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy as first- and second-line therapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Several phase III clinical trials had authenticated that the addition of bevacizumab to paclitaxel plus carboplatin or gemcitabine plus cisplatin showed encouraging efficacy as first-line therapy for advanced NSCLC patients. However, the benefits of adding bevacizumab to other chemotherapy regimens in first- or second-line therapy have not been reported. To compare the clinical efficacy and safety of bevacizumab concomitant with chemotherapy regimens in patients with advanced NSCLC as first- or second-line therapy, we retrospectively reviewed the effects of adding bevacizumab to chemotherapy regimens in naive-chemotherapy and pre-chemotherapy patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC. A total of 79 patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC received at least two cycles of bevacizumab with chemotherapy between October 2010 and December 2013 were selected. Our primary end points were overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR). The secondary objective was overall survival (OS) and safety. Seventy-nine patients were included in this study. Overall response rates at first evaluation (after 2 cycles) were 23.1 % (9/39) and 5.0 % (2/40) in first- and second-line therapy (P = 0.020), respectively. And disease control rates were 84.6 % (33/39) and 50 % (20/40), respectively (P = 0.001). The median OS were 27.2 months (95 % CI 13.3–41.1 months) and 29.6 months (95 % CI 6.7–52.5 months), respectively (P = 0.740). Grade 3–4 adverse events included leukopenia (2/39), and neutropenia (3/39) in first-line therapy versus neutropenia (1/40) and thrombocytopenia (2/40) in second-line treatment. In our experience, combination of bevacizumab and chemotherapy had encouraging anti-tumor efficacy as both first- and second-line therapy.